Sir, I beg to support the amendment moved by Dr. Ambedkar for the incorporation of article 264A. The article is framed to meet a number of difficulties and in the circumstances appears to be the best. I personally would have liked if the Centre had been authorised to impose the tax, collect it at the source,–at the import or the production centres,–and distribute the collections to the provinces. That would have reduced the number of points where expenditure has to be incurred in keeping books of account, but as the provincial governments did not agree to the Centre imposing the tax and then distributing it, the article as now proposed is the best. It seeks to do away with certain anomalies, which exist in the legislation of certain provinces where tax is imposed on sale, even though the article is delivered or consumed in another province. Similarly, it will do away with the tax on certain articles which are produced in one province but are sent to other provinces, that is to say in the course of inter-State transactions. At the present moment, Sir, I know of two cases where taxes have been imposed in Bengal to the extent of 25 lakhs of rupees on a mill which is situated in Orissa. Even though the goods were sold in provinces other than Bengal, still Bengal imposed an amount of twenty-five lakhs of rupees as taxes, simply because the company’s head quarters happens, to be in Bengal. The present section will do away and remove such taxes being levied in such cases where the sales take place outside the province.
